CHAPTER EIGHT

 

 

Stars twinkle high above us as Boone and I quietly gaze into each other’s eyes. Somehow, despite the velvety darkness of the night, some golden ray of light faintly illuminates his dark blond hair and his flawless face.

I don’t even remember it getting this late, but the evening is still and hushed. There are no owls hooting or crickets chirping. It’s just Boone and me.

When I hear the faint sound of treetops rustling, I realize we aren’t on the beach anymore. I take a curious look around, noting that we’re in a woodland clearing. A bubbling brook babbles nearby as the water gushes over smooth gray stones. The air is cool and fragrant with cherry blossoms.

“Where is this place?” I whisper out loud.

I’ve definitely never been here before.

Wait, when—how—had we even gotten here?

I can’t recall. My whole head feels pleasantly hazy.

“All that matters is that we’re here together,” he says huskily.

Boone’s calloused palm glides against my cheek, turning my face back toward his. He leans closer and I notice that his shirt has suddenly vanished. Instead, his sun-kissed skin sparkles underneath the silver moon. I swallow hard, almost too distracted by his accent and deep blue eyes to care about how his shirt disappeared as fast as it had.

“Are you a magician?” I sputter.

He leans closer, pulling me toward him. I place my hands against his chest, feeling the strength of his chiseled body. If I’d known that rugby guys were so gorgeous, maybe I would’ve watched the sport before meeting Boone.

Boone flashes me a flirtatious grin. “Some girls might say so.”

“O.M.G.,” I whimper. “I’m in real trouble now.”

He chuckles and pulls me onto his lap, his muscular arms secure around my waist. A delightful shiver creeps up my back inch by inch. Even my ears are pounding.

“Boone, what are you doing?” I ask “There’s no one here but us. We don’t have to act…”

“What if I told you I don’t want to act anymore, Sutton,” he breathes into my ear.

My jaw drops as I stare at him. I blink hard, desperately trying to make sense of what Boone just told me. Could he really be feeling like this?

The hand caressing my face slides around the back of my neck. Beneath his rough fingertips, my skin grows warm and tingly. It feels like my whole body is shaking.

“Sutton…” he whispers, embracing me.

He bends his head to kiss me and I want to taste him so badly I’m trembling.

I’m lost in his eyes…but there’s something strange about his voice.

“Sutton,” he repeats, but his southern, deep twang is slowly growing oddly high-pitched. He gives me a small shake in his arms. “Sutton!”

I crack my eyes open to find my two BFFs’ faces inches from mine.

“Ahh!” I scream, jerking backward.

Both Liv and Kali scream as well, Liv falling backward, arms pinwheeling as she tumbles headfirst off my bed. She pops up again a second later and pouts at me.

“That wasn’t nice!”

“Neither is sneaking up on a girl while she’s getting her beauty sleep,” I say, rubbing my palms over my eyes, trying to clear my head.

That whole moment with Boone had apparently only been a dream. A delicious, glorious…torturous… dream. I gather my comfy blankets around me, hoping my face isn’t too flushed. That dream had felt way too real. My heart is still pounding, and my blood is still pulsing like crazy in my veins.

I haven’t even seen Boone in a few days. After our rendezvous on the beach, we decided to keep things discreet until one of the beachgoers spilled about seeing us. We didn’t want to come off too bold. No, we had to build a little mystery.

Honestly, this fake relationship has been one of the most fun things I’ve done in a long time. Not only is hanging out with Boone a blast, but I’ve missed the stage since G&G went big time. This is like a performance that lasts for weeks instead of only hours. I didn’t realize how much I missed those days at USC when I was in theatre class.

“I think Sutton’s drunk,” murmurs Liv uncertainly. She waves her hand in front of my face and then snaps her fingers. “She’s in a totally different world right now.”

Forcing myself to focus on the besties who have invaded my bedroom, I sleepily frown at Liv. “It’s not even 7 a.m.”

Grabbing my pillow from behind my head, I chuck it at her. Liv yelps, trying unsuccessfully to dodge the pillow headed right toward her face. She ends up falling right back off the bed again and onto the plush turquoise blue rug. Curled up on the edge of my bed, Coco glares at us condescendingly for making so much noise so early in the morning.

This time, Liv stays where she is, laying on the carpet with her arms and legs outstretched.

I give a sniff, smelling the air. Our beach bungalow smells amazing this morning. “Is that…? Kali, did you make blueberry muffins? And am I smelling banana bread, too?

“Coffee cake,” Liv chimes in from the floor.

Oh, no. This is bad.

Letting out a heavy sigh, I reach out and grab Kali’s hands. “Babe, do you want to talk about why you’re stress baking? Is it Grayson?”

My throat feels so tight I can hardly breathe.

If Kali and her hunky boyfriend got in a fight and broke up, what would that mean for Boone and me? The last thing I want to do is rub a fake relationship in Kali’s real grief. I love her too much to do that to her. But on the other hand, I don’t want to cut Boone off just yet, either.

Well, this is a dang pickle, as Boone would so sweetly lament.

“No,” Kali admits hesitantly. With a groan, she flops against me on the bed and holds her phone out to me. “I’ve been trying to wait for you to get up for hours, but I couldn’t wait one second more. You have to see this for yourself.”

My stomach clenches nervously as I take Kali’s phone. Liv crawls back onto the bed and lays next to Kali and me.

“Check Twitter,” Kali instructs.

I scroll absently through the feed, at first not seeing anything of note, but then I gasp in surprise.

“We’re trending again!” I cry happily. “Wait. But why? I don’t remember posting anything too special lately. Did you post something, Kali?”

She shakes her head, reaches across me, and taps on the screen a few times until a picture pops up.

I tilt my head one way and then the other as I try to decipher the grainy shot. A woman is in the arms of some super sexy man, her body draped over his arm, his mouth to hers, her long, dark hair billowing in the wind.

“Looks like a romance novel cover,” I whisper before my breath catches in my throat. “Squee! That’s me. That’s Boone! That’s us!”

That moment had definitely felt magical when it was happening, but to see it captured like this. It’s my very own fairytale moment.

Liv nods sympathetically. She caresses my hair as Kali wraps an arm around me.

“I know you and Boone were trying to keep your relationship on the down-low.” Kali sighs. “But it looks like you got busted. Franco’s isn’t the subtle spot it used to be. I’m sorry, girl.”

I force back the overjoyed grin threatening to brighten my entire face, knowing that Kali and Liv expect me to be bummed. I still hadn’t exactly found a good moment to tell my BFFs that my relationship with Boone is entirely fake, and now it looks like I’ll be keeping the secret a little longer.

Our plan really worked! I can’t wait to tell Boone.

“You know what you have to do, right?” Liv suggests after the silence draws on a little longer. “You and Boone should make a video together to talk about the situation. If we don’t, all of the comments we get are going to be endless questions. If the Glammers get frustrated, it might not pan out well for us.”

I nod, letting out another sigh. “You’re right. That’s the only way to handle this,” I agree with feigned reluctance, gazing at my friends and putting on my best glum face even as my very soul is doing cartwheels and somersaults.

Act one is complete.

Now it’s time for Boone and me to really grab the audience.